SAO: The Emerald Isle
by Friday Knight
Summary: While the thousands of gamers were trapped in SAO, the Nervegear's shipping plans were brought to a halt. However, the Amusphere's shipping plans were not interrupted, and thus distributed around the world along with several VRMMORPG games. This is the story of what ALfheim Online is like in Ireland Sidenote: All OC's, if you want to take part for whatever reason, let me know
1. Chapter 1

In a small tavern, down a beaten path, a melodious tune was floating in the air. The music in question was coming from the fiddle of a Fairy, a Pooka, who has the ability to use music and magic as one in the same. Right now, while also playing a favourite song, it was preforming a spell of bartering, so that the NPC's prices would be lower, and would be able to afford more drinks for the friends in his team, or guild. Of course, none of these things were real, well, to an extent none were real. This was all part of a game known as ALfheim Online. The Pooka, was known as Dagda, or at least that was his user name. He was the leader of this guild, and was easily the strongest out of the six in his Guild. In the world of Alfheim, there are nine types of Fairies, and there are six of them in his guild. The Second in Command, known as Elusive, was a Cait Sith, a feline like fairy who has amazing control over beasts. Elusive actually possessed a crow, known as Duibheagáin, or more commonly referred to as Dubh, pronounced Dove, seeing as no one has the time to say all that. Chukks, a Gnome, a type of fairy that has great power over the earth as well as earth magic, is their Tank, capable of taking extreme damage and coming out unscathed. Angel, an Undine with bright white hair, is their mage, who specialises in healing and water magic, as well as annoying the hell out of their leader. Silver, who is the fastest member of their team, is the main fighter, if you could call dashing in and landing a few devastating blows then retreating fighting, well I suppose if you phrase it like that it is. Lastly is Hollow, their blacksmith, who as a Leprechaun, has a vast knowledge of technology and iron, as well as being ironic seeing as the story takes place on the Irish server for ALfheim online.

ALfheim Online is a Japanese made game, of course it is, the Japanese always make the best things, well, except when it comes to cars, Germany has that title. "Japan does not have a secret fairy that can fly forever Angel." Oh, and it appears that we have stumbled upon a small argument between the guild. "My penpal says otherwise." Angel said, sticking out her tongue. "When was the last time you talked to them?" Silver asked. This caught Angel off guard. "W-well, I messaged her last month." She said slightly cautiously. "And between now and a month ago, some players found out it was a hoax." Angel made a small pout, which is odd considering her kind of fairy was supposed to be the most mature. "Do any of you actually know what's going on in Japan right now?" Came a rough voice. Silver turned to their tank and said "Yeah Chukks, I heard that someone found the sword of Excalibur after fighting a Frost Giant and befriending Thor." At these words the music stopped playing. The whole guild turned to their leader to see what he had to say. "That's strange, isn't Excalibur supposed to be an Arthurian myth, and Thor and Thrym are Norse myths?" A long 'uhhh' came from the mouth of the Sylph, but before she could say anything their Second in Command cut in. "I'm just going to say yes, cause, I'm pretty sure you know more about myth's than the guys who wrote them." Elusive caused a snort from their mage. "Oh shut it you stupid bird." Dagda said, mocking Angel's name. Angel growled a little and summoned a ball of water above their Leaders head. "You wouldn't." Angel had a smirk similar like the devil, as she slowly released her hold on the water. "Angel, Dagda, quit it." A voice said, smacking Angel over the head. With her mind distracted, the water fell, luckily missing Dagda, who sighed with relief, before also getting a pound on the head. "You two never learn." Hollow sighed, the blacksmith putting her War Hammer back into its holster. Funnily enough, the lowest level member of the team had the most influence over them, mostly because of her motherly attitude, but also because she somehow knew how to keep the younger generation in line. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Angel said as she sat down at the table, picking up a pint of ale (virtual of course, as I do not condone underage drinking) and gulped it down. Dagda sighed and began to play another song. Before he could place his bow on the strings of his fiddle, the NPC's that worked the Tavern cried out in fear. "Told you not to play." Angel said slyly. Dagda scowled at her then turned to the NPC, who had a glowing yellow diamond over it. "It's a quest?" Chukks called over, getting up and standing by his brother in arms, ironically his only one, seeing as the rest of his team were all female. "Is, uh, everything alright?" The NPC turned to face Dagda and said "Help! A group of bandits are coming this way!" Shortly after a message box showed up saying "Will you accept _The Bandits of the Bar._" With an option for yes or no underneath. Dagda turned to his guild and raised an eyebrow. The four fairy females looked at each other and smiled. "Yeah let's roast some goats." Elusive said. Causing everyone to stare at her. "While I agree, I'm not using the same wording." Silver said smiling. "Yeah I need the gems, trying to save up for a decent spell book." Everyone turned to Hollow, waiting to see what her reason was. "Exp." She simply said. Which was enough for everyone else. Dagda promptly clicked the yes option. "Thank you so much, you will be greatly rewarded." With that there was a loud explosion outside the Tavern. "Looks like the fight's outside," Silver said "good, it'll give me a chance to stretch my wings." She then sped out the door, and was followed by the rest of the more feminine members of the team, which isn't saying much considering how much of a tomboy Angel was. With the two males left alone in the Tavern, Chukks looked to Dagda and asked "You gonna stay with Pooka, or you gonna go imp on their ass?" Dagda laughed and said, "Depends on what time it is." Instead of checking the lower corner of their vision their eyes both turned to the old grandfather clock that was recently installed by the tavern. While it could be considered not useful, as all players had a small digital style clock in the lower right corner of their vision, some of them preferred an analogue clock. "Well, it's dark enough." Chukks said, after turning his head to the windows outside, which showed the occasional bright flash from their companions attacking the bandits. "Well, looks like it's time to bite the bullet, or arrow rather." Dagda said, giving Chukks a chuckle. "Well I'll see you outside." He said, as he swiped his right hand down, activating the menu, and equipping his preferred weapon, which was a battle axe, and quite a large one at that. "I'm going to change up, start the party without me." Dagda told him while smiling. There was suddenly a rather large explosion. "Looks like it's already been started." Chukks said shaking his head. He waved a hand to Dagda and then walked out of the Tavern.

Outside of the tavern, it was absolute chaos. The "bandits" that the NPC had warned them about were actually a mix of all the different races in ALfheim. He was about to comment when a rather large Salamander, a fairy who excels in fire magic and can be contested as one of the strongest races, went flying past him into a tree. While the tree itself took no damage, a small hexagonal sign popping up saying "Immortal object" the Salamander burst into a thousand shards of red. Chukks looked to his left and saw Hollow waving at him, her large war hammer equipped and looking as deadly as ever. Chukks waved back as he activated his wings. His wings were a shade of brown, similar to the symbol of his race and his face. He scanned the battlefield looking for an appropriate amount of enemies to take down. However his comrades seemed to be taking care of them all. Angel was using her wand to deliver devastating spell after spell, in the form of huge tidal waves, seeing as Undines are adept at water magic. To her right Elusive was slashing and summoning with Dubh pecking out the eyes of her enemies. Elusive's weapon was a staff with a sword on one end, and a quill on the other. This allowed her to both attack up close and perform spells. In the midst of it all was a silver blur. Surpisingly enough this blur turned out to be Silver. She was rushing around the field with her Scythe by her side, either decapitating the bandits or cutting of their legs so as to cut off their head on the second run around.

As Chukks was staring at all of these fighters, he noticed a small group of Spriggans making their way to the bar. He smiled and summoned his earth magic. The Spriggans soon found themselves trapped within four walls of stone. With this phase done, Chukks flew down towards the trapped Spriggans and then deactivated his wings. With him falling at Mach speeds he raised up his battle axe and began his Sword Skill. It is called a Sword Skill regardless of what the weapon that is being used is. As he began his skill, known as "Stone Hammer" his battle axe began to glow a light blue. The Spriggans AI finally realised that they should look up. The last thing they saw was Chukks enormous form descending rapidly towards them and then. BANG. If someone were looking at the trap of earth, they would have seen several Spriggans thrown in to the air, and then broken into several thousand pieces. There was an immediate lull in the battle as only a few were left. These few happened to be of the same species as Elusive, Cait Siths. The bandits realised they were cornered and then began to chant. The words of their spells were floating around them, highlighting each time they said a word right. Of course, because they were AI, the never messed up on spell casting, quite annoying in a battle. They finished their last chant and a large roar could be heard. Quite suddenly a large dragon landed behind the Cait Siths. The Guilds jaws dropped, all minus Silver, who looked at Elusive and asked "Can you do that?" Elusive cast a glare at her, as the dragon roared and the Cait Siths clambered onto the back of the enormous beast. The dragon roared once more but left its mouth open, it became apparent it was charging up, what was presumably a very large fireball. As Angel and Elusive began chanting a shield spell, an arrow whizzed past the five warriors at lightning speeds. The arrow was on target, as it sped inside the dragon's mouth and flew out the back of its head, into one of the Cait Siths.

The members of Laochra turned and smiled as they saw their leader, standing atop the Tavern a good hundred meters out, silhouetted in the moonlight. A black cape flowing behind him. He was now longer the Pooka that was playing a fiddle in the Tavern, he was now an Imp, a species of fairies that has amazing night vision, and are known as masters of the night. There was an anguished roar as the Dragon was knocked down to red health, signifying that it was close to death. The dragon shook and three Cait Siths fell off, seeing as one was now presumably dead from the arrow. With the three now on the ground, Silver rushed forward and killed one, whereas Hollow and Chukks both lunged with their heavy weapons, utterly defeating the two small enemies. With the three feline foes dead, Dagda jumped from the tavern and landed aside his friends. Dagda chuckled as they all stared at the dragon.

"Elusive, Angel." Dagda called out in a commanding tone, much different to that in the Tavern. The two magically adept females turned to them. "Luck enchant please." Angel didn't argue, as she knew not to in the battlefield. While she did enjoy messing around with their leader, she knew that sometimes, there was no proper time to do so. The two mages began to chant the necessary incantations required for a spell of luck. A spell of luck does three things, depending on the person's weapon. It will give the user higher accuracy, a higher chance of a critical hit, and if defeating an enemy while the spell is in effect, more loot. Dagda was only concerning himself with the last one, as he knew he wouldn't miss, and whether it was a critical hit or not, the dragon would die. The dragon, sensing that it was in danger, began to turn tail and run away. Dagda however, was too quick for it. Sending and arrow into the back of its head the second it turned around. The arrow stuck in its head, causing more damage than it would have if it went through, but it didn't matter, the impact of the arrow caused the dragon to slump to the ground with a large THOOM. The dragon let out one last roar, and exploded into millions of particles. Several grey boxes appeared in front of the guild members and one single large text box in the middle, stating that they beat the quest. The boxes that were in front of the fairies were reward pop ups, stating how much EXP you earned, how much money you got, the currency here being Yrd (Yurudo), and if you got any items from that battle. Majority of items you can get from battles are potions and the like. Sometimes you may get a weapon if you defeat a particularly difficult enemy, like now.

"Anything good?" Hollow called to their leader, while checking her own box, near Chukks where they both crushed the two Cait Siths. "I got a weapon called 'Dragons Bane' but it's just a sword, although it looks kind of like a katana." Dagda said, looking at the sword in his reward box. "How much is it worth?" asked Angel, who had high levels in Bartering. Dagda checked the description of the item. "Not much, attack is pretty high, but durability is fairly low. It's only worth around a hundred or so I'd say." The team looked slightly downcast. While you may think a hundred anything is worth a lot, it would only get them about five health potions in this world. "Actually," Dagda murmured, as he closed the reward box and opened up his inventory with a swipe of his left hand. From the rest of the guilds point of view he was swiping his fingers back and forth with rapid succession. With great surprise to his team mates, the bow on his back disappeared, and a katana with a black sheath appeared at his side. He looked down at the newly appeared weapon. The sheath was black with intricate designs of dark red and purple, a similar colour to the dragon they fought. He placed his hand on the sheath and brought it out slowly. There was an interesting light effect coming from it as it opened. It appeared as though the blade was spewing out fire, when in reality it was a red light. Dagda pulled the rest of the blade out and held it parallel to himself. The blade, like the sheath, was the darkest black, clearly made from some sort of dark metal. He took a stance, similar to when he was fighting with a sword, and swung. To his immense surprise a large burst of fire swept from the blade, heading straight for Chukks. Chukks reacted quickly despite being just as surprised as Dagda was. He quickly did an enchantment and a wall of earth sprang up between himself and the flame. As the flame hit the wall, it exploded and the wall disintegrated. Thankfully Chukks was unharmed, well his body was, but his pride was ruptured. "That's the strongest earth protection spell I know." He said in a sad tone. "Well to be fair," Dagda began "Gnome's magical abilities are not as profound when used above ground." He stopped than chuckled at the inadvertent rhyme. "You want to go to Rugers Tunnel to make sure?" Dagda asked, knowing that the tunnel was not far off. "No, I have homework to do." A sudden curse broke the tranquil scene. "Angel, language." Hollow scolded. "Sorry, I just remembered I have homework to do too." Angel apologised. "While I don't have homework," Elusive began "I think it may be time for my dinner." Everyone glanced at the clock out of habit and saw that it was 6:30 PM. "That's a bit early don't you think?" Dagda said. "Actually I have mine around now too." With these words the four made their way back into the Tavern to log out safely. "You don't have anywhere to go do you?" Dagda asked, turning to the Leprechaun. "No, I'm free." Hollow replied. Dagda nodded, taking this in. "Do you want to go to Ruger? Teann gets more minerals and stuff if it's underground right?" Teann, is the name of Hollows Warhammer, given to her by the Blacksmith that taught her. "If they are associated with them yes." Hollows Hammer, has a special ability, where if a monster is defeated by the hammer, it will increase the users chances of getting minerals, which is useful to Leprechauns, if the mob is associated with earth or valuables, such as Stone Golems or Diamond Dogs. "Alright then, let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

SAO: The Emerald Isle

"Gakah." A Goblin cried out as it was crushed beneath Hollow's hammer. "Nice one, you'll be able to improve your strength stat in no time." Came a voice from behind her. Hollow turned around to see Dagda staring at her while typing something on a blue screen from a keyboard hovering in the air. "Wouldn't you rather do that back at Clarks?" Hollow asked, referring to the guilds favourite Tavern. It is their favourite as it was unknown and the NPC's have grown accustomed to them, and therefore charge less for them. Dagda stared at the work he was doing before replying. "Nah, I need to get this done, I've never gotten in trouble in this class before, and I don't plan on starting now." With that he went back to typing, staring at the screen while typing at what could be considered record speeds.

"How do you type so well?" Hollow couldn't help but ask, as she batted another Goblin out of the way, getting small amounts of EXP and Yrd. "Well," Dagda began, unsure of whether or not to say. "I have this sort of, condition, where it makes my handwriting completely illegible." Hollow nodded, recalling someone in real life who had a similar condition. "So I type up all my homework, I figure it'll help later on because I'll probably have to use a computer in whatever job I get." Hollow chuckled as she remembered a certain person whom she knew in the real world that had the same ambition and ideas, which somewhat confused her as she thought the condition was rare.

Hollow turned a corner ahead of Dagda and froze. Before her was an extremely large goblin with a crown on his head. A shimmering bar above his head stated that he was "Bowie, the Goblin King". This was actually a low level "boss" monster, but Hollow was also low levelled, well, in comparison to the rest of her team. Add to the fact that he was a terrifying dark green with muscles that looked ready to crush a large truck, and teeth that stuck out at odd and sharp angles. Bowie roared at her with saliva flying from its chilling mouth. It was at this time Dagda came around the corner. He was only half paying attention, so the only thing he really noticed was the fact that Hollow had stopped. "What's the matter? Goblin got your tongue?" He chuckled. Hollow put out her arm, grabbed his head and tilted it skywards.

"Oh shit." Was all that left his mouth. The Goblin King roared and swung his meaty fists at them. They both jumped back and landed gracefully, well, as gracefully as one can land while dodging an extremely large hand. Dagda frowned and summoned his bow. He pulled back the string then realised that his text file was in his way. "God damn, Hollow, I need you to save me." He shouted at her. "Your stronger than me what the hell do you mean?" She shouted back. Dagda skilfully moved a finger while still holding the arrow back. "I meant save this." Hollow suddenly found the file sliding in front of her, which had been given to her by Dagda using the transfer motion.

With the file now out of the way, Dagda had a clear shot at Bowie. The beast roared as the arrow plunged into his shoulder, taking out at least a quarter of his health. "Damn it," Dagda cursed, "His ranged defence is too high, better switch." Hollow who was busy staring at Dagda's homework, didn't hear him. Hollow was currently having an existential crisis. Unbeknownst to everyone on her team, Hollow was actually a teacher. And this piece of homework looked unnervingly similar to the homework that she set for her class today.

While Hollow was off questioning her existence, Dagda had switched his weapons. I say switched, what he really did was a move that is specific to his bow. He is able to take his bow apart at the hold and turn the two sides into swords, and rather sharp ones at that too. He held his swords in his hands, staring at the massive goblin, who was obviously trying to think of a way to attack without getting hurt.

"GAKRAAA" Bowie charged at Dagda, who stood still, waiting for an opportune moment. Dagda's eyes turned into slits as he found his window. He sprang up in the air, and activated his wings. This is something that only a Fairy of his race can do. An Imp, has amazing nightvision, which was greatly helping in this battle seeing as they were underground. Another ability that can only be used by an Imp, is flying underground. No other Fairy race can do this, and it gives Imp an amazing advantage while fighting underground. Dagda who was in the air, saw his moment to strike, and dove down, pointing his blades right in front of him, directly at the eyes of the goblin king.

"SHHLLLLIKKK" Dagda's swords went through the enemy's eyes and came out the other side, pixilated blood spurting from both ends. Dagda twisted his blades and placed his foot on the green giants chin, and thrust backward, freeing his swords from the sticky mess, but leaving a measly line of red in the bosses health bar. Dagda jumped back and placed his hand on Hollow's shoulder, getting her attention away from his file, which she was reading with a worried look.

"Gah," Hollow jumped in surprise. "Why'd you do that!?" She asked angrily. Dagda raised an eyebrow and jerked his head in the direction of Bowie. "Oh, last attack bonus?" Dagda nodded, "Alright, here." Hollow swiped the file back in front of Dagda and charged at Bowie.

Because he was blinded he stood no chance of being able to dodge or block Hollow, which wouldn't have mattered anyway, as Hollow's armour has a special ability called "Barbs" which damages who ever hurts her with a weapon from close range.

Hollow roared and smacked Bowie with her War Hammer at close range, immediately eliminating the remaining HP on his life bar. Bowie exploded into a million shards of blue, and left in his place a small grey box saying ""Goblin King Bowie" has been defeated!" As for a reward, Hollow was granted large amounts of EXP and Yrd, more so than Dagda as she got the last attack bonus.

A small ding sounded, which showed that Hollow had levelled up. "Yes!" Hollow said, overjoyed at the prospect of getting stronger. A small blue screen came up, and on it were several different aspects of her skills, each a different level. There was also a small number three in the lower right corner, showing her how many points she could spend on levelling up a skill. She chose to put two to strength and one to smithing. Seeing as she was already a Leprechaun she didn't need to upgrade her smithing that much as it was already very high.

"Hope you chose right." Dagda called at her from behind, as he was seeing how much Yrd he had gotten. He brought up a second window which was his inventory, to see how much he'd accumulated in total. It was 8 digits long.

"Jeez, don't you ever spend your money." Hollow cried incredulously at the large amount of cash he had saved up. Dagda shook his head, and then tapped his pocket, once more bringing another screen. He currently had three screens in front of his face. The left most one had his homework on it, the right one had his inventory and savings, and the middle had a strange picture of something on it, but Hollow couldn't quite tell what it was when it was facing her reversed.

"Almost done." He whispered quietly, then proceeded to close all of his windows, but not before making sure his work was saved. He turned his neck sharply to the left, a few cracks popping from the joints of his spine, which sent a shiver down Hollow's spine.

"I wish you wouldn't do that." Hollow said frowning, to which Dagda replied by sticking his tongue out and cracking his knuckles. Hollow shivered once more, then bat him over the head with her war hammer. Because they weren't in a safe zone the 'attack' actually hurt, and while that was the intention she hadn't actually meant it.

"Ow, well I guess you levelled up strength." Dagda said, rubbing his head. Hollow blushed and nodded. "Well, I guess we're done here, unless you want to go to the mining outpost a little ways away."

"Sure, I don't see why not, maybe while we're waiting there the others will come back." Hollow turned around and began marching in the direction she was going before Bowie interrupted her.

They both made their way down the large tunnel, Dagda taking part in defeating any enemies that lied in the way. Luckily, they managed to get to a point in the tunnel where the wall to their left completely disappeared, leaving a large cavern in its wake. A huge shimmering pool of crystal blue water filled the bottom of the cavern, and large, serpentine shapes could be seen flitting neer the surface at random times.

In the middle of the lake, across a large stone bridge, was the Mining Town known as Ruger. Ruger was a decently sized town, not as big as any of the bases of the races of the fairies, but enough that it held many shops and Inns. It was quite a beautiful sight, and looked as though it belonged in a snow globe with how perfectly round the foundation was.

Dagda let out a sigh. "I am always impressed by this game." Hollow shook her head and nudged him. "What? I love stuff like this. It's so pretty." Dagda saw a shadow move across the water and tightened his grip on his bow. "And it gives great XP." Hollow followed his gaze to the water and her eyes went wide.

"No." She said simply. "We don't even have Angel with us." She told Dagda amazed at his idiotic intentions. "We wouldn't last five minutes." Dagda smiled at her and cracked his neck once more. "I thought I told you not to do that." However she quickly became less angry as she saw Dagda bend over as if he were about to run a lap of a track.

"In times like this, there is only one thing to say." Dagda said calmly as he glanced at Hollow, who raised her eyebrow in question. "Eh-hem." Dagda coughed. "LEEROY JENKINNNNNNNNS!" A large cloud of dust was left behind in Dagda's wake as he zoomed towards the top of cave and took out his bow, in dual sword form.

"What, an, idiot." Hollow said, emphasising each word from her viewpoint on the cavern trail. She then saw several words begin to float around Dagda, spinning more rapidly as it went on. "Wait a minute, what spells does he know?" Hollow asked aloud, mentally counting what Imps were good at. Dark magic is what Imps tend to excel at, but if she remembered correctly, Dagda was also extremely good with…

"Oh no." Hollow whispered as her eyes widened and her mouth dropped as sparks of blue electricity emanated from Dagda. Electric spells didn't have a proper race that could master them, as none of the races were based on electrical fairies, which meant any fairy could learn it and be quite good at it. However, if it's mixed with dark magic, which is an Imp's specialty, it ends rather, messily.

From Dagda's point of view, everything was going perfectly. He had just completed his electric spell, which normally would send a burst of lightning towards wherever he was pointing, but he used a dark magic spell known as "Magic Prevention". He used the Prevention spell first, which prevented the lightning from being released, and then used a spell known as "Weapon Charge." This combination of spells lead to Dagda's swords being imbued with the power of Lightning, and thus, attacking a large underwater beast, could not end well.

"Alright, let's do this." Dagda motivated himself. He brought his blades together, making it look as though they were one in the same, and charged downwards towards the water. The symbol of Imp appeared in appeared and electricity began to connect from the symbol to his swords. Dagda noticed several shapes in the water begin to circle the area where he was going to hit the water, obviously thinking that they were in for a quick and easy meal.

"Boy you guys are in for a surprise." Dagda said as he neared the water. A large mouth which was attached to a large, snake like fish appeared out of the water and opened its mouth, waiting for Dagda to fall in. Dagda cracked his neck once more as he said: "Well, let's give you something to chew." With that Dagda was swallowed by the monster, causing an outcry from Hollow.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" She screamed, and while she didn't know it, several players in the mining town stopped momentarily to wonder whether or not they were hearing things. Dagda was easily the highest level member of her party, and he just decided to go and get eaten by a giant fish! "He's such a bloody idi-, wait, what the hell is that?!" Hollow's insult was cut short as she noticed a bright blue light emanating from under the water.

"Why do I feel I should step back?" Hollow thought to herself, deciding to follow her actions and take a small step behind a rather large rock, peeking out around the side so as to still see what was going on.

A large explosion suddenly rocked the cave to its very core, which is strange as the cave was empty; ah screw it you know what I mean. Hollow heard several screams of fear come from the mining outpost. Hollow shook her head and leaned against the rock. Why is it that every time she goes somewhere with him, people end up screaming.

A sudden crash shook her from her thoughts. Hollow stood up and looked around, only to hear a groan from the other side of the rock. She peeked over it to find Dagda spread-eagled on the rock, and slightly inside of it. Hollow sighed and hauled him over the rock.

"What the hell was that?" Hollow said, more calmly than she had done so before. Dagda laughed and then brought up his inventory. He spun it round so that Hollow could have a look at it. His money hadn't changed much from last time, but now he was up two levels. "Woah, those things give a lot of XP."

Dagda stood up and nodded "Yeah, especially if it's just the one person. Actually, here, you might like this." Dagda brought his inventory back around to him and pressed on a slot which opened up several different items. He scrolled down a bit then pressed his finger on one of them, highlighting it in orange and causing the item to appear in his hand.

The item in question was several large scales, obviously from the fish type monster that he had just killed. He handed them to Hollow, who looked at them strangely. "Why would I want these?" She asked, looking at the scales closely.

"I think they can be used as an armour ingredient, I think there's a smithy at Legrue that you can use." Dagda said as he began walking to said town. Hollow followed after him shortly, amazed at how quickly his mind can go from fight to flight, or glide in this case, as he was calmly walking down the trail.

When they arrived at the outpost they could see that some people were still anticipating another grand explosion. Dagda began whistling nonchalantly and quickened his pace. Of course nobody knew that he had caused the explosion, but it was more of a precaution.

"The Steel Soldier" was a smithy shop within Legrue, that was easily the most popular one there. This was more than likely because of the NPC that was in charge of the store could be considered a rather attractive female by several of the male players. Of course, this was only because the types of males that are attracted to virtual characters don't have a chance with real ones.

"Hello, and welcome to The Steel Soldier." A voice rang as Hollow and Dagda entered the shop. If there was one thing Dagda always admired about this game, aside from the amazing graphics, it was how they got the NPC's to sound so real. They couldn't have recorded them because each time Dagda talked to her she had different lines of conversation every time.

"Hello Tabitha." Hollow smiled. Like Hollow, Tabitha was also a Leprechaun, and while she was an NPC Hollow felt a small connection to her. "How's business going?" She asked as Dagda was busy browsing the shelves for interesting looking weapons.

"Hello Hollow." Tabitha giggled "Business is doing just great, especially now it's November, many people have their birthdays then which means people might get this for their birthday and come to my shop." She smiled, causing Hollow to chuckle.

"You know why that is right?" Dagda called from the front of the store, while hunched over to look at a brightly coloured sword. Hollow had no idea what he was on about, and so was curious as to what he meant. Tabitha on the other hand, knew quite well for some reason.

"Oh yes, that is because of February." She smiled. "Wait, what's February got to do with it?" Hollow asked, confused as to what she meant. "Well, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much-" Hollow cut her off by pressing her hand against her mouth.

"I know that part, but what has February got to do with it." She heard Dagda chuckle from behind her. She turned round to face him and found him standing in front of a shield with an intricate design. "An important date in February, add 9 months, and you get November."

The gears in Hollows head turned for about two seconds, before she turned red and shouted "Dagda!" and punched him to the back of the shop, where he landed in a pile of armour, the helmet falling on top of him and sticking to his head. "Uh, oops." Hollow smiled, her hand scratching the back of her head.

A very muffled "I'm fine." came from the helmet. Dagda decided to try and pry it off with his hands, but it appeared to be stuck. He looked similar to a dog trying to get a bucket off his head, only slightly more comical. "Some help would be appreciated." Came another muffled yell, which prompted Hollow and Tabitha to try and get him out of the helmet.

"Man you're really in there." Hollow said as she grunted trying to pull him out. Dagda replied but it was too muffled to make out, which is good as Hollow would have hit him for it. After a lot of pulling and tugging, Dagda's head popped out.

His eyes were surprisingly wide and his hair matched the shape of the helmet, but he got rid of it with one shake. "Why are your eyes glowing?" Tabitha asked, curious as to why Dagda's eyes were a burning white.

"Nightvision, Imps are the best at it. And don't let some Spriggan tell you otherwise." Dagda grunted the last word. Imps were commonly known as 'Masters of the Night' or at least that's what their description was when you hovered over them while picking your character. There has always been a sort of rivalry between Spriggans and Imps, while it's not as bad as Salamanders and Sylphs, or Salamanders and Undines, it was still there.

It was more of a friendly feud to be honest, each trying to prove that their race is the best. It was the Imps actually, and that's not me being biased. Imps are the only race in Alfheim that can fly underground or when there is no sun. They are also one of the lightweight races, as are Spriggans, which means that they can run on walls if they have enough speed.

"Well what about treasure finding?" Tabitha asked, "Aren't Spriggans supposed to be good at that." Dagda gave her a look that sent shivers down her virtual spine. "Ok never mind." Tabitha said, now looking worried.

Hollow was about to complain to him about being rude, but a notification popped up on her screen. It was a message from Angel. It read 'Hey Hollow, me and Silver are back online if you want to come back to the pub.' Hollow rolled her eyes at Angel's use of language. It was a tavern not a pub, there are differences, probably. She then turned to Darragh who was talking to Tabitha and apologising.

"Oi." She called, causing both of them to turn. "Silver and Angel are back online and want to meet up, head back to Clarks?" She asked. Dagda nodded and said goodbye to Tabitha. "See you Tabitha!" Hollow called as she exited the store and journeyed back out of the town they had just entered.


	3. Chapter 3

SAO: The Emerald Isle

After eventually getting out of Ruger tunnel, Dagda and Hollow made their way back to Clarks, where Silver and Angel were awaiting them. However Dagda momentarily stopped outside the building to admire its rustic feel. With thatched roof and wobbly window panes it really gave the feel of being back in medieval times where fairies were the norm.

After Hollow eventually dragged Dagda in they were greeted by the NPC's as well as Silver and Angel, and to their surprise Elusive. When they questioned it Angel explained that she got on just a while ago while they were waiting for them.

"Ok, seeing as we're all here minus Chukks, what was that dungeon or whatever you mentioned?" Dagda questioned Silver, who had brought up the point earlier that day when she had first got on. Silver sighed and rolled her eyes.

"It's not a dungeon it's an abandoned castle." She stated "But there is a quest that is automatically activated once you go in." Dagda took this into consideration, quests that activate once you go in, without you having an option are usually either very easy or very difficult.

"What sort of quest is it?" Dagda asked, it might be easier to figure out the difficulty of it depending on the type of quest. If it was a retrieval quest it might not be that hard.

"Um, it's supposed to be a slaying quest." Silver said hesitantly "Don't quote me on it though." Dagda thought about the idea of slaying something in an abandoned castle.

"Well, if lore proves it's worth it would more than likely be a dragon or something." Dagda said, thinking about any monsters that could be in a castle. "Or it could be overrun with Orcs or something, and if we kill them the king will come out and give us a reward."

"Oh, I like the idea of that." Angel said "I still can't find a decently priced spell book anywhere." Dagda rolled his eyes at the mages greed, then realised he couldn't really say anything himself about not wanting lots of Yrd.

"So should we head out?" Elusive said, Dubh giving a squawk in agreement with her. The other three females nodded their heads in agreement. Whereas Dagda disagreed to an extent.

"You guys can head out, I'm going to wait back here and message Chukks that we're going to do a quest." The others nodded and said their goodbyes as they headed out the door. Dagda plopped down on a rather comfy booth, and brought up his screen.

"Hey Chukks, we're going to start that quest that Silver mentioned earlier, letting you know if you want to join." Dagda typed out into the blue screen. "and smiley face :D." He chuckled at the small face he added and hit send. He then proceeded to lie down on the booth and wait for him to reply.

He stretched out his back and got comfortable. He then decided to wave his hand up to call over a waiter. "A cider if you don't mind, thank you Jameson." The waiter nodded and backed away, coming back once he had a small bottle in his hand with the picture of an apple on the front.

"Thanks." Dagda said, and popped the cap off the beverage. He took a sip and sighed. Food and drink in the virtual world seem to be much more full of flavour than that of the real world. While he was drinking a message popped up on the window.

The message read "I'll be there in a bit Dagda, just finishing off some homework." Dagda nodded and put the message away and continued with his drink. He wasn't eligible to drink in the real world, so this was the closest he got to actual alcohol. Of course he didn't condone underage drinking, he just liked the taste of this drink.

When there was only a small bit left a series of thumps could be heard from above. "That'd be Chukks." Dagda chuckled. As Chukks was a gnome, it meant he was one of the heavyweight classes, which meant he could be easily heard approaching. Of course, Leprechauns are heavyweight classes too, but don't tell Hollow that.

The door to the upstairs of the tavern which held the beds had opened, and Chukks was barely visible in it. His wide shoulders meant he had to turn sideways in order to get through the door, and he had to hunch a little to stop from hitting it. Dagda was snickering all the while until he remembered that he was in fact a decent bit taller than Chukks, and the first time he tried to log out he ended up whacking his head on the door frame.

"Hey, how's it going?" Chukks asked, now that he had gotten through the doorway. "Grand, just waiting for you." Dagda replied, finishing off his drink. He put the bottle on the table, then took a few coins out of his inventory, and put them down beside it. "Let's get going shall we." Dagda said as he headed to the door.

There was a small round of goodbyes from the NPC's as they left. Once outside, the two male members of the guild stretched their joints and activated their wings. "So," Chukks began, while twisting his torso "you know where we're going?"

"Yeah, Silver pointed it out to me on my map beforehand." Dagda replied, stretching out his arms, then opening his menu to get the map out. The map was a very old looking map, but that was just the way the game made it, as Dagda had only bought the map a week ago because he got tired of forgetting where everything was.

"It should be right," He walked over to Chukks as he was looking for the castle, "here." He placed his finger on the map and then jumped in surprise. "What, what is it?" Chukks exclaimed, reaching for his battle axe.

"Nothing it's just, do you see that." In Chukks eyes, Dagda was just pointing his finger at a random spot in the distance, but to Dagda, a giant blue diamond was hovering in the air. "It's a giant ass diamond, I think it might be a marker location." Dagda said, thinking over the possibilities as to what it might be.

"WAIT YOU CAN DO THAT!" Dagda exclaimed glaring at the map. He then pressed his finger at random spots on the map, and a diamond would appear where he pressed, then disappear as he pressed another spot. "Oh my god that would have saved me so much time." Dagda fell to the floor in agony.

Chukks rubbed his back in sympathy. "Well, now you know for next time." Dagda sighed and got up. He checked his map once more and pressed his finger where the castle was. Another bright blue diamond popped up in his vision. He tried turning away to get the blue diamond out of his sight, which worked, but there was a small blue arrow in the side of his vision showing him what direction to turn.

"Alright," Dagda said, facing the diamond "Let's get cracking." They both activated their wings and took to the skies. Because of Chukks heavyweight class, the flying took a bit longer than it would have if it was just Dagda. So Dagda decided to pass the time with some conversation.

"So," He began, causing Chukks to glance over at him, "what was that homework you had to do like?" Chukks chuckled and said "It was a pain in the ass that's what it was like." Causing Dagda to laugh

"It was technology, and I had to figure out the voltage of a circuit after going through two resistors." Chukks said, causing Dagda to freeze. "And to make it worse I couldn't find my calculator." Chukks said the last bit laughing, before noticing that Dagda was no longer beside him.

"Yo, what's wrong?" Chukks said, floating back over to him. Dagda looked as he was considering ever waking up that morning. Suddenly, Dagda's hand grabbed Chukks shoulder, making him unable to move and very uncomfortable. "Uh, Dagda, you're kind of freaking me out right now."

"Chukks, I need you to answer something for me, or else I'm pretty sure I may go slightly insane." Chukks gulped and nodded his head. "What school do you go to?" Chukks deadpanned. "Are you kidding me?! You looked so god damn serious." Dagda grabbed his arm harder and told him. "I am serious."

Rather than wanting to aggravate him more Chukks told him. "I go to a place called Setanta." Dagda's eyes went wide with an "Are you kidding me" face. "That's not bad is it?" Dagda shook his head and chuckled.

"No it's not bad, it's just I go there too." He said through tears in his eyes from laughing. Now it was Chukks' turn to freeze in place and stare at Dagda. His eyes were searching his to try and find any evidence of a lie. When he couldn't find any, he resumed flying.

"Are you telling me, that we've been on this team, for almost a year, and we haven't known that we go to the same school?" Chukks said, putting emphasis on "a year". Dagda stopped and thought for a moment. Had it really been that long since he met Chukks?

Dagda thought back to when and where he first met Chukks. He had just recently started with his Puca character, and had been exploring the north of Alfheim, as he had rarely been up there as an Imp, seeing as the Imp and Puca bases are quite literally on opposite sides of the island.

While he had been exploring, he heard a very loud clanging noise, coming from an open hole in the ground. He flew down the hole, to find a large amount of rock like monsters fighting against a single Gnome. Dagda had two thoughts running through his head, "Should I run?" "Should I help?" He decided on the latter and took out his fiddle. He began to play a spell that disorientates enemies and makes them hurt each other.

The Gnome looked startled, and locked eyes with Dagda, who was still playing the tune. Dagda winked at him, showing that he meant no harm. Chukks nodded and then proceeded to slice up several of the enemies, leaving only a few left. Of course he was still very low on health, which prompted Dagda to perform a healing song.

While changing songs, the enemies became refocused, and attacked the Gnome. He was able to easily take out two of them, but a third had begun running towards Dagda. The Gnome yelled to watch out, but Dagda had everything under control. He stopped playing his fiddle and slashed at the monster with his bow. The enemy shuddered and then exploded into a million coloured pieces.

With that, the Gnome and Dagda walked up to each other and introduced themselves. "Dagda." He said, sticking out his hand. "Chukks." Replied the Gnome, grasping his hand. And thus, a beautiful friendship was born.

Dagda hardly noticed how much he flew while recalling the story until he was already at the castle, and could see the rest of the guild waving at them. They both deactivated their wings and flew down to the ground. Dagda activated his moments before landing, allowing a graceful descent, whereas Chukks…

"THOOOOOOM." A large cloud of dust flew up from the ground, caking everyone in a thin layer of dirt. The girls all groaned but Dagda just laughed the dirt off.

"Do you have to do that every time you land?" Angel asked, annoyed at the bits of grass in her hair. "I mean honestly, it's just messy and you should save it for battles." She shook her head, trying to get all of the dirt out of it.

"Well excuse me, I like making an entrance." Chukks said sarcastically, then performed a short spell to gather all of the dirt into a ball. He threw the ball away and said. "It's easy to clean up any way."

"Whatever," Silver began "Anyways, this is the place." She turned around and stared at the massive castle. Hollow let out a low whistle in admiration. As they all began walking towards the castle, Silver noticed an inscription on the door. "Hey look," she said pointing to it. "My schools got the same crest.

"Me too." Everyone said at the same time nonchalantly. "Wait…WHAT!"


End file.
